Curtain rod



May 4 1937.

Filed March 16, 1936 INVENTOR5 Patented May 4, 1937 UNITED STATESCURTAIN ROD Robert D. W. Vroom and Walter H. Toelle,

Wallingford, Conn., assignors to H. L. Judd Company, Inc., New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Application March 16, 1936, Serial No.68,991

4 Claims.

Our invention relates to a curtain rod.

It is the principal object of the invention to provide a curtain rodwhich may be quickly adjusted to length and which may be put up withoutbrackets and without the use of tools.

Another object is to provide a readily adjustable curtain rod which issimple in construction,

cheap to manufacture, of few parts, and effective in use.

Other objects will be hereinafter pointed out or will become apparentupon a reading of the specification.

, In the drawing which shows, for illustrative purposes only, apreferred form of the invention- Fig. 1 is a view in elevation of acurtain rod illustrating features of the invention and showing the rodapplied; and

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the rod, parts beingbrokenaway.

Our improved rod includes a pair of telescopic or relatively slidablerod members which in the formshown comprise a hollow tubular rod5 and aninside rod 6, which may be solid and is slidably received in the hollowrod 5. The free ends of the rods 5 and 6 are provided with holdingmembers,

such as friction rubber caps 1-1, which may engage the sides of a windowcasing or the sides of a door frame or other surfaces, herein generallytermed wall surfaces.

When in use the rod members are urged telescopically outwardly so as tocause the opposite ends of the rod to frictionally and tightly gripopposite wall surfaces. One of the rod members carries a springpositioned to abut the end of the other rod member, so asto urge the rodmembers outwardly relatively to each other. The spring is adjustable onone of the rods so that, regardless of the extension of the rod, thefrictional hold-' ing forces may be the same. By this means theeiiective overall length of the rod may be varied to adapt it to windowcasings, for example, of different widths. In the form illustrated acoil spring 8 is carried by and surrounds the rod 6 and the free end ofthe spring is of a size to abut the end of the rod 5 or a finish pieceor ferrule 9 thereon. The spring 8 is held in various adjusted positionson the rod 6 so as to permit extension of the rods and adjustment of thespring holding forces. The rod 6 is provided with means, such as aspiral thread in the form of a groove l0, extending substantiallythroughout a substantial portion of its length and the spring 8 at oneend is reduced so as to fit the groove Ill and form in effect what maybe termed a spring nut, formed by one or more of the several coils llfitting in the groove 10. It will thus be seen that when the spring 8 isturned on the rod 6 the spring will be shifted longitudinally on the rodand the two rods therefore adjusted relatively to each other.Furthermore, by having the spring adjustable at will on the rod, theextent of the friction forces to hold the rod in place may be adjustedto the desired extent within the limits of the particular springemployed. Our improved rod, it will be noted, may be very quickly andreadily applied to window casings, door openings and the like, ofvarying widths. It may be caused to hold with the desired force withinthe limits of the spring and any wear or give in the parts will bereadily taken up by the spring 8.

While the invention has been described in considerable detail and apreferred form illustrated, it is to be understood that various changesmay bemade within the scope of the invention as defined in the appendedclaims.

We claim:

1. In a curtain rod, a pair of telescopic rod members, a springsurrounding one of said rod members and engageable with the other rodmember, one of said rod members having a thread thereon and said springhaving an end reduced so as to fit said thread, whereby upon rotation ofsaid spring on its rod the spring and rod will be moved relatively toeach other, for the purpose described.

2. In a curtain rod, a hollow tubular rod member, a solid rod membertelescopically received within said hollow rod member, said solid rodmember having a spiral groove thereon, a wire nut received in saidgroove, saidwire nut being extended into spring form and engageable withthe end of said hollow tubular rod, for the purpose described.

3. In a curtain rod, a pair of telescopic rod members, frictionmemberssecured on the free ends of said rod members, the inner of saidtelescopic rod members having a spiral spring thereon engageable withthe other of said telescopic rod members, and means on the outside ofthe inner of said telescopic rod members for holding one end of saidspring in adjusted position there- 4. In a curtain support, two rodsslidable one within the other, a spiral coil spring mounted on theoutside of the inner rod, one end bearing against the end of the outerrod, and means on the outside of the inner rod to hold the other end ofsaid spring to different positions thereon to vary the effective overalllength of said support.

ROBERT D. W. VROOM. WALTER H. TOELLE.

